Graham Norton thought his Father Ted character was ‘a monster’

Simon Kelly

“Ted… I’m going mad.”

Graham Norton has admitted that he thought his character in Father Ted was a “monster” when he was originally playing him.

The Irish comedian and talk-show host played Father Noel Furlong in the hit Channel 4 drama 30 years ago and reveals that he has a different opinion on the character looking back.

Norton appeared in just three episodes of the beloved sitcom, but became a cult-favourite for fans, specifically for his debut appearance in the episode ‘Hell’.

Graham Norton thought his Father Ted character was ‘a monster’

Speaking on the 2FM Breakfast show to promote his new show Last One Laughing Ireland , the 60-year-old opened up on playing the iconic priest: “When I look at that bit on Father Ted, I sort of think, ‘That is just me!’ When I was playing it I thought, ‘Oh what a monster’ and now I look back at it thinking, ‘Oh they just cast me to play me’.”

Despite his mixed opinions on his character, Norton named Father Ted as his favourite comedy of all time: “I mean I know I’m in it – it really does stand up, Father Ted.

“I’ve no pride (in it) because I had nothing to do with it but I suppose I remember at the time being Irish in the UK and watching it,” he added.

“It’s weird because there was a certain portion of the UK who watched Father Ted thinking it was like a French surrealist farce and the rest of us watching it thought it was a documentary.”

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Norton played the extremely hyperactive Father Noel Furlong, who was deemed an annoyance by everyone around him.

He first appears in the season two episode ‘Hell’, where he gatecrashes Ted and Dougal’s caravan holiday and annoys them to no end by keeping them up all night, telling ghost stories and performing a Riverdance routine inside the cramped caravan with his youth group.

In his short time on the show, Father Furlong also inadvertently causes a plane to almost crash in ‘Flight of Terror’ and gets crushed by falling rocks after orchestrating a screeching competition in the Very Dark Caves in the episode ‘The Mainland’.